Al Oppenheiser – Vehicle Chief Engineer, Global Rear Wheel Drive Vehicles
Al Oppenheiser was named the Vehicle Chief Engineer for the Chevrolet Camaro on November 1, 2007. He is responsible for bringing the 5th Generation Chevrolet Camaro into production, in addition to the Pontiac G8. He joined the Global Rear Wheel Drive team after spending 4 years as the Director of Concept & Vehicle Integration for the GM Performance Division.
He began his career with General Motors in 1985 at the GM Technical Center in Warren, Michigan as a test engineer, and subsequently held several positions within engineering including Development and Validation manager on the Corvette platform.
In 1991, he moved to the International Joint Venture Programs as a design release engineer responsible for the GM content on GM’s Joint Venture Vehicles with Toyota, Suzuki, Isuzu and Daewoo. In 1993, he was promoted to Product Engineering Manager for the Geo Metro, and helped develop a global Gamma program in 1996 with Opel by facilitating the relationship between Opel and Suzuki for the global Agila program while in Germany.
Promoted to vehicle chief engineer in 2001, Al led the engineering development and launch of the Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon Midsize Truck program.
In 2004, Al became the Director of Concept & Vehicle Integration for the GM Performance Division. In that role, Al was responsible for the engineering and build of all of GM’s Concept Vehicle, including both the Camaro Coupe and Camaro Convertible. He also ran GM’s Bonneville Salt Flats racing team, as well as directing Hot Rod builds for celebrities such as Jay Leno and Reggie Jackson.
When Al is not spending time on the Camaro program, he enjoys spending time in the 1968 Camaro Convertible he restored from the ground-up, riding his Harley, and is on the lookout for a ‘30’s Hot Rod to build next

And Al is one of the most down-to-earth friendly guys you'll ever meet. He is a true Camaro guy that is more than will to stop and talk Camaro's with you all day long.
With Al, it's not a job, it's a true passion.

He's talking about the whole package. Design is outside of his office, but he has a grasp of what is going to happen there, too. Everything we think we know about the car is still unconfirmed. For all we know, it'll have an inline 16 with nitrous oxide on the LS model.

Also remember that the guys working on the Camaro are real car guys. They aren't there to water down an awesome product. They will produce an amazing vehicle. You should know. You're probably driving one of them.

God bless Al, but undoubtedly some of what we've heard IS true (e.g.., new Camaro being on Alpha platform, being manufactured at Lansing, etc.).

Now, perhaps he's talking about other stuff such as the claim made a month or so ago (by Edmunds, I think), that the new Camaro will look very similar to the existing car. Well, sure, it's possible that that's not true. Or perhaps it is true, but it's a subjective thing, and in Al's opinion, the new car looks very different from the old car, but someone else, looking at the same thing, has the opinion that they look alike. We shall see...

I hope it looks like a 70 1/2 split bumper with a completely new designed power plant that will surpass all understandings of how a small block can perform ( na 650-700 hp and 7500-8000 rpms). I also want it to have 15 inch wheels/tires with better braking than the current brembos. I would also like a
three speed automatic that you can manually shift like the turbo 350 but much faster shifting.It needs to come with a 3.73 rear gear and maybe even a line-loc for us that drag race. I'll stop here as I may be asking for too much...lol.

I hope it looks like a 701/2 split bumper with a completely new designed power plant that will surpass all understandings of how a small block can perform ( na 650-700 hp and 7500-8000 rpms). I also want it to have 15 inch wheels/tires with better braking than the current brembos. I would also like a
three speed automatic that you can manually shift like the turbo 350 but much faster shifting.It needs to come with a 3.73 rear gear and maybe even a line-loc for us that drag race. I'll stop here as I may be asking for too much...lol.

With considerable confidence, I can almost guarantee that none of this will happen.

I hope it looks like a 701/2 split bumper with a completely new designed power plant that will surpass all understandings of how a small block can perform ( na 650-700 hp and 7500-8000 rpms). I also want it to have 15 inch wheels/tires with better braking than the current brembos. I would also like a
three speed automatic that you can manually shift like the turbo 350 but much faster shifting.It needs to come with a 3.73 rear gear and maybe even a line-loc for us that drag race. I'll stop here as I may be asking for too much...lol.

I sure hope for the life of Camaro they change its looks a lot and not add a little new here and a little new there. The 5thgen is badass however it will get stale as in looks with folks on the street and unless it gives a new wow folks wont buy it. Be 4thgen all over again. just my .02